Tag Archives: Gorechosen

It’s been a good while since I started this guy – with the intention of using him as a proxy model for Vexnar the Reaper in our games of Gorechosen. Why a proxy? Simply put, I wanted to get in some proper practice before starting in on the rather expensive and very nice “official” models that came in the box. Similar to the previous proxy model I’d painted, but with a slight*cough*delay between models.

Anyway, I’ve finally gotten this guy done. And while he fits nicely enough into Armoured April, the impetus was just as much seeing it on the desk and just making myself get the bloody thing finished.

I’m pretty satisfied with how the model came out overall. The only real thing that bothers me is the teeth on his skull-helm look a little like a comedy moustache from a distance at time, which is probably not what The Blood God intended. There’s a slight conversion going on here, in the form of a weapon swap. He’s had his Katar-shield replaced with a hammer from one of the plastic Dwarf kits – it works both as a direct reference to Vexnar – armed with an axe and warhammer – and as a piece of looted war booty. After all, if you’re going to use a warhammer stolen from a foe, a dwarven hammer is the way to go, right?

As a final little thing, and a shout-out to all Science-guys from Germany, I have a shot of most of my main Khorne Champion-types from the last couple of years. Skulls for the Skull Throne!

Those readers who have been following this blog for awhile might recall the Painting December project, where in December 2015 I attempted to put aside the normal-scale models I usually work on in favour of getting some larger, more centrepiece models done. I managed to complete the Mierce’s Talos, before moving onto both the Marauder Giant and Be’Lakor. – Neither of whom I managed to finish, and both of whom still lay on my desk, sadly buried under other projects…

Ashoka, from the now-discontinued Hell Dorado game’s “The Lost” range was a figure I picked up several years ago. I got a pile of figures in their Kickstarter, and another pile via retail, though I never got around to reading the rules or playing it. Still, as you can see – it’s a bloody nice figure, and one I decided was going to be a “bonus, secret stretch goal” for the Painting December project. Like the other two, he sat forgotten and unfinished for a couple of years (despite a couple of false starts that kept ending when his arms broke off) until recently, when I just had one of those “just finish that fucking thing” moments, and so that weekend, I did. As it happens, it worked out nicely, since his dual-wielded axes helped him get proxied into our first games of Gorechosen as one of the champions. Despite not being an obvious champion of Khorne, I think his aesthetic fits into a game of gladiatorial combat just fine. So he came back inside to get his base-skull added. I based Ashoka on a rolled-lip 50mm base because a 40mm GW base was too small, and 60mm was too large. 50mm just seems to be the right balanced size for some figures, and mounting him on some cork allowed enough clearance for his tail to not be scraping the base edge. It also makes an already-imposing model even moreso, so there’s that as well.

I dunno if I’ll ever actually play Hell Dorado. I’ve certainly got enough models, and I’m not too fussed about the lore, but it’s yet another ruleset to learn, and it’s one of those games that comes with printed cards for the miniatures. Anyone reading this have any idea where I left Ashoka’s card? Yeah. That’s my problem with card-based unit stat systems. Give me a codex-style book-based system any day of the week.

So aside from Gorechosen, what does the future hold for Ashoka? Well, I figure he’ll find a home alongside either or both of my eventual Chaos Beastmen and Lizardmen forces, as he fits both aesthetics nicely enough. Especially now that GW are starting to recognise beastman sub-races other than Gors again.

In the last couple of years under the direction of new CEO, Kevin Rountree, Games Workshop has seemingly remembered that it’s a games company. The results of that has been a flood of new boxed games, most of which have been for the dual purpose of bundling models – i.e: Discounting their overpriced models without actually, officially discounting and also to produce games, which are giving their rules writers some chops and experience in, you know, rules writing. Happily, many of these products are actually good games by all reports.

One of these games I’ve picked up is Gorechosen. The game where Khorne’s champions beat one another to death in an arena setting in a very-much-beer-and-pretzels style game that’s reminiscent of a WWE Royal Rumble kind of thing. Well, more like a Fatal Four-Way Elimination match to nitpick, but I digress. It’s quite a good, light, fast game. So for me it was a no-brainer to pick up since I only had one of the models included (via an eBay secondhand thing) and their individual prices are, frankly, horrific (remember, I’m an Aussie – so take your local prices and make them even worse!)

What sucks is that in several regions (including my own), the game appears to not only be sold out, but hit with the dreaded dual “No Longer Available” and “Sold Out Online” stamp, which is a real shame, but speaks as to the way GW is pumping out these games with a very limited and defined shelf life. It also means we’re up a certain creek if we need to replace any components due to loss or damage. Bah. If the game sounds interesting, I’d get thee to a demo game or pick it up while you can. I’m sure there should be copies of it for cheap on eBay with the models stripped out, and as you can see, those are easy to proxy in – so as I said – a worthwhile fun, simple game to add to the collection for a varied session.

Anyway, the models are (too) sweet, and not having painted any Khorne in quite some time, I decided instead of getting right into them, I’d choose a few other models as proxies, that while still looking impressive, aren’t quite as expensive or involved as the official models. That way I’d have some things to play the game with while getting my Khorne Mojo going again – and then I can paint the proper models. In the meantime, this guy in WIP form, the Champion of Khorne, Champion of Nurgle, and Khorngor Champion (and a couple of others) have been getting some playtime in.

Colour scheme is pretty close to the “official” one, which in turn is pretty much Khorne-standard as established over the last 30 years. When I paint more of these guys and turn them into units for AoS/KoW/etc I’ll probably start to vary them more into something approaching different “uniform” schemes and effects (lacquered armour, etc) for every 8 or 16 of them. Without being too uniform of course, because chaos. I’ve added the little skull to the base not only as an aesthetic choice, but as a “front” marker. Miniatures (and GW’s ones in particular) often seem to have their bodies facing one direction while their heads face another – which is fine – but Gorechosen is a game where facing is a thing, so I’m using skulls to mark the “front” of the models that will be used in the game. The rest of the base is painted in keeping with the arena floor used in the game.

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Photobucket Image Apocalypse:

A quick note here to let visitors know that I’m still *slowly* working my way through the blog, un-Photobucketing the various posts. If you come across a post where the images are messed up or blocked that you’d like to see – drop me a line in the comments there and I’ll prioritise fixing that/those ones.